troublous epoch of the early centuries of our chronology. Greece, at that time, was turned inside out. On the islands, which were reached with greater difficulty, the Hellenic race maintained itself upon the whole. On the mainland, it was overlaid by barbarous races, and only managed to preserve its existence sporadically. At the time of the War of Independence in the present century, an Albanese and a mixed SclavoGreek population occupied the greater portion not only of Northern Greece, but also of the Peloponnesus. There were entire provinces in which the bulk of the peasants scarcely spoke any Greek at all, whilst the towns' population was as mixed as in Roumelia. Even at the last census, out of the 1,325,000 inhabitants of the kingdom, there were nearly 300,000 Albanese or Aruants! At the very gates of Athens, Albanese is still spoken by the country people; and without a knowledge of that language, it is difficult to get on in the neighborhood among the lower people. Byron found the Athenians, as regards speech, much altered from what he had expected to find them; he said, they are "far from choice, either in their dialect or expressions, as the whole Attic race are barbarous to a proverb."

Thanks to the labors of men in whom the fire of enthusiasm for the classic age glowed, the process of rebuilding the Hellenic nationality, and purifying as well as propagating its language among the discordant part of the population of the kingdom, has been considerably furthered during the last thirty years; still, much remains to be done. Excepting Thessaly, where, as I have stated, the Hellenic, or, at least, Greek-speaking race prevails, it may be doubted whether the acquisition of any further territory on the mainland would be desirable for Greece. In Epirus, there are, no doubt, a few places where the tongue has been preserved with considerable purity; but, in the main, that province is inhabited by Albanese, Sclaves, Wallachians, and similar incongruous tribes.

In Crete itself, the Greeks by no means preponderate in such a way as to

render the separation of that island from the Ottoman Empire an easy task. If some parts of the isle were not rather inaccessible, and if the insurgents had not been continually supplied with men and arms from Russia as well as from Greece (General Ignatieff, the Czar's embassador at Constantinople, occupied himself very busily with the expedition of such aid !), the insurrection would never have been able to maintain itself beyond a few weeks. The majority of the Cretans are Greek-speaking. But there is also a very large population of Turks, industrious cultivators of the soil, who consider themselves as much natives as their Hellenic neighbors. Besides Greeks and Turks, there are Armenians and Abadiotes in the island; the latter of Arab origin. Together with the "Franks," these different nationalities form rather a motley crowd. The Armenians are either neutral, or favorably inclined for Turkey, on account of the religious situation awarded them. The Abadiotes are a robber-race that occasionally render themselves unpleasant to friend and foe. This state of things is not exactly calculated to impress the Mussulman with the necessity of giving up his hold on Candia.

I may state here a fact of the full correctness of which I am satisfied, and which is calculated to shed some light on the underplay in this vexed "Eastern Question."

Two years ago, the intention was to bring about a simultaneous rising among the Servians and Bulgarians, as well as among the MoldoWallachians. At the same time, Greece was to make a push from the south. The month of March, 1867, was fixed for common action. Before, however, the rising on the mainland would take place, it was resolved to initiate a movement in Crete, and so keep it up, apparently quite isolated, until public opinion in Europe would have somewhat warmed in favor of that "localized " Greek move. It was hoped that the device would succeed; that the press, the public speakers, even the statesmen of Europe, would on that occasion pro

nounce against Turkey, and encouragement be thus given to the latent insurrectionary forces on the mainland.

In order to obtain an additional chance of success, a project was started of drawing some Sclavonian and Italian elements within the Austrian border into the enterprise. The scheme, however, miscarried through many difficulties. In Crete, the insurrection made very slow progress, only showing signs of life by fits and starts. The Bulgarians exhibited scarcely any willingness to join at all. The Sclavonians could not act unless others had begun on a large scale. At least, the late Prince Michael of Servia, who is believed to have at first assented to the plan, hung back when the time came for carrying it out; and to all evidence, he lost his life through a conspiracy started for the purpose of revenge. The Greeks would not make a move on their northern frontier before Turkey was otherwise occupied by a great diversion; but they continued fomenting the Cretan rising, knowing well that it was destined to be used one day as the means of lighting up a conflagration in the whole East. This will explain their recent bold attitude. Their hope, in fact, was, that Russia, in whose hands the plan above described centred, would, on the arrival of the proper moment, espouse their cause openly. In that, they have so far been deceived. The "Eastern Question" has not yet become ripe enough for such open Russian championship.

I have shown the great difficulties of the so-called Pan-Hellenic idea. Greece has not yet a thoroughly united nationality within its own boundaries, and it is numerically extremely weak in Europe. The additional one million Greeks that live in Asiatic Turkey, scattered over various provinces, count only in so far as they can aid in furnishing means for insurrectionary purposes. But for the consolidation and aggrandizement of Greece in a national sense they are valueless, living far away from Hellenic soil.

In a certain sense, the monarchical re

gime may be said to act as an impulse to these desires of territorial extension. When Leopold of Koburg, who afterward accepted the Belgian kingship, was offered the Greek crown, he refused it, one of his reasons being that the country was not able to maintain itself without the addition of Thessaly and Epirus. Now, "the country" would have been quite able to maintain itself without those provinces. But a court, with its be-starred and bedizened hangers-on, and with its standing army full of officers eager for advancement, had some difficulty in living upon a small and poor community. Hence the finances of Greece have been brought to the disgraceful condition which is universally known. In the Budget for 1861, the Civil List is set down with one million drachms; the Navy with 2,131,958 drachms. The absurdity of spending nearly half as much money to the maintenace of the head of the State as to the naval establishmnet of a country which since ancient times has produced excellent seamen, need not especially be dwelt upon.

If, on the one hand, it is but natural that the Greeks should wish to withdraw from Turkish dominion such portions of territory as are inhabited by a decided majority of Greek-speaking people eager for junction with their brethren; on the other hand, the practice of embarking in ambitious enterprises which are simply destined to give additional splendor to a court, cannot be condemned too strongly. Internal improvement is thus only retarded, and a handle is forged for aggressive Russian policy.

The ejection of Otho, the son of King Ludwig of Bavaria, from the Greek throne, might have been made the occasion for establishing a real self-government of the people. I know that such was the intention of those who first organized the conspiracy for the overthrow of Otho. Afterward, elements of a less trustworthy character joined the secret movement; in consequence of this, all hope of seeing Greece converted into a free Republic soon vanish

ed, before the outbreak had even really taken place. It will be remembered that Garibaldi was a few years ago asked by a Greek deputation to come to the country and place himself at the head of the movement. He refused. His phil-Hellene sentiments are worldknown; but well may he have felt doubts as to whether he would not be made the instrument, against his will, of designs which have nothing to do with popular deliverance.

Instead of creating a republic, the leaders of the insurrection which had driven Otho from Greece chose a new monarch, in the person of a son of the King of Denmark. The latter had been placed on the Danish throne over the heads of some two dozen other claimants nearest in succession, simply because Russia, who maintains a reversionary claim to Denmark, got nearer in this manner to her own ambitious aim. By transplanting Prince William--whose name was changed into Georgios, on account of the word "William " being difficult of pronunciation to Greek lips-the Russian Government, which was the real author of his candidature, contrived to narrow still further the number of those royal persons who stand in its way as regards the succession in Denmark. At present, there are only two of them yet alive, irrespective of King Christian; the one twenty-five, the other ten years of age. Who knows whether for them also some Eastern throne may not be found? If that were the case, the succesion of the Imperial family of Russia would become of immediate actuality in Denmark, at least in the opinion of the Court of St. Petersburg. In the mean time, Georgios of Greece has been made to take a Russian princess for his wife; and in order to increase her dowry, Crete was to be joined to the Hellenic kingdom. These tricks of autocratic statecraft cannot be left unconsidered, if we would understand events in the East in their full bearing.

How much happier might the Greeks be, had they selected that form of government which seems natural to the genius of the people, as well as peculiarly

adapted to the conformation of the country-not to speak of the traditions of that ancestry to which continual reference is being made, without their being followed out to a logical conclusion ! In that mountainous country, where communication is attended with great difficulties, the dwellers in the separate valleys have been able to preserve a kind of local self-government which contains the substance of republican customs. Turkish dominion, though it has lasted so many centuries, has not affected those privileges. The conqueror did not trouble himself with the internal affairs of the Greek community. He left them the right of annually electing their demo-gerontes, or municipal magistrates, and he at most tried to be on good terms with the archontes, or landed gentry, so as to have a hold upon the Greeks, or what were supposed to be "Greeks," by means of men of their own nation. The commercial councils thus levied the taxes themselves; and all municipal, commercial, and judicial affairs were regulated mainly under the guidance of the archontes and the clergy. The Turks lived chiefly in the fortified towns, interfering but little in the internal concerns of Greece. Consequently, when the War of Independence had established the country as a separate commonwealth, the basis of selfgovernment was still in existence. It need only to have been proclaimed the principle of the State at large. But from the very moment the Greeks had obtained their independence, an insidious influence exerted itself to mould them to the level uniformity of monarchical rule.

Kapodistrias, the head of their Provisional Government, attempted to introduce a despotic, bureaucratic regime. He had been, some years before, in the diplomatic service of Russia; and it is not unreasonably suspected that the connections thus formed were at the bottom of his attempt. The subsequent royal government of Otho had necessarily similar tendencies to crush out the spirit of self-government. There were, in 1855, not less than 12,549 royal

officials in Greece, at the side of thirty bishops and archbishops, and 5,114 priests-among a people of but one million inhabitants! Of monks and nuns there were two thousand. But of teachers only 674!

The great mass of the Greek nation is devoted to agriculture. Those occupied in industry are reckoned at about twenty-six thousand; those in navigation, about the same number; those who cultivate the soil at 230,000. It is true, of the 7,700,000 hectares of soil, 2,500,000 are barren mountains and rocks, and 800,000 hectares are forest. Yet, of the remainder even, scarcely one sixth is stated to be really cultivated; so that although the people, with the exception of the islanders, are mainly agricultural, grain must be imported. A great evil is, that the Church holds vast tracts of the soil in mortmain. There is little freehold property. Whatever there is, is burdened by tithes and heavy imposts. The mass of the people live most poorly; milk and herbs forming, in many regions, the exclusive nourishment!

And with such a state of things

it was found necessary to introduce another purple-born ruler as soon as one had been bundled out! When a people allows itself to be thus fleeced at home, it becomes somewhat difficult to feel a thorough interest in its Argonautic expeditions abroad.

In many respects, the foundations of a republican commonwealth, similar to that'flourishing in Switzerland, are in existence in Greece. Were republicanism established as a state institution, with the simple and safe forms prevailing in the Helvetic League, the danger of foreign influence would be entirely barred out, and the country, by its example, might serve as a political guide to neighboring populations. As it is, Greece is impoverished by an expensive royal government; its aspirations are misdirected by an intriguing foreign statecraft; and the sympathies of the lovers of freedom are placed in a painful dilemma from which there is no escape, except by a sacrifice, however temporary, of cherished principles, or by a disregard of the first precepts of political self-preservation.

THE name of Argyll was already familiar to the history reader, as identified, in almost every generation for centuries, with the great cause-the old cause, ever the same, fought for long before Greece, eyen Egypt was,-of human rights. And now, in our war, an Argyll proved himself a worthy descendant of a peculiarly bold, independent, and liberty-loving house. There has long been, they tell us, a tradition in the Highlands, that some day there would be born a "good Duke of Argyll, with red hair;" and he has come in the present Lord, say the peasants of Clan Campbell. His was almost the only voice which was raised constantly, and in no doubtful tones, in the House of Lords, in defence of the Northern cause. He was too earnest to be politic; but as events turned out, nothing could have VOL. IV.-84

conquest, one Gillespick Campbell established his race for all time by marrying the Lady of Lochow, in Argyll's line, with whom came as dowry, the lordship of the place. Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, his descendant, being heroic in war, was named More, meaning in Gaelic, the Great; he was styled then, Mac Callum More, and the Argyll now living boasts that as even a more dignified title than the ducal one; and when he goes northward to the Highlands, the folk of Inverary welcome him not as My Lord Duke, but as Mac Callum More. Niel, son of Colin, was Bruce's right hand warrior, fought for him from Methuen to Bannockburn, battling gallantly for Scottish independence; as a reward, he was given the hand of King Robert's sister, the Lady Mary Bruce; so the Argylls have the blood royal, the sturdy blood of Bruce. The first peer of the house, however, was one Sir Duncan, who became a Lord of Parliament by the creation of the Scottish James II. in the year 1445; his son in turn becoming Earl of Argyll, and going as Ambassador to England, and afterward to France, then being named, as was his father Duncan before him, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland. So the title descended for several generations, Archibald, fourth Earl, in the first Reformation days, avowing himself Protestant, and taking thenceforth the lead of the Scottish heretics. His son Archibald embraced the cause of Mary Stuart. The eighth Earl, still Archibald, became Marquis of Argyll, took a leading part in the Cromwellian wars, was commander-in-chief of the Covenanters, but ingloriously and suddenly declared for the Restoration, and himself placed a futile crown on Charles II.'s head at Scone. He turned a second time in favor of Cromwell, then, when Charles II. was at last restored in reality, he hastened to turn a third time, and congratulated His Majesty. But the King sent him back to Scotland in disgrace, where he was tried for high treason, and beheaded at the market-cross in Edinburgh. His son shared a like fate in 1685; but his grandson, who

favored the invasion of Orange received back the ancestral estates and was made first Duke of Argyll. John, his son, was perhaps the ablest of all the house of Mac Callum More. He was a general of high talent, took command of the loyal forces against the Pretender Rebellion of 1715, and did excellent service for the "Protestant succession;" so that Pope said:

"Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield, And shake alike the Senate and the Field."

Thus, through centuries, the Argylls have taken a large part in the stirring affairs of Scotland and England—a race warlike, proud, independent, brave, and active, oftener reformers and defenders of progress than the allies of feudal tyrannies-always asserting an influence second only to that of royalty itself. It is from such an ancient and powerful family that the present Duke has sprung, to become an aristocratic champion of disestablishment, household suffrage, and of general reform.

The present, eighth Duke of Argyll, is still, for one so eminent in British councils, a young man. Doubtless his high rank gave him great advantages in the beginning of his public career; he had no struggle to take his place in Parliament, which is the lot of men not born to politics; and even mediocre talents, invested with an hereditary title, makes itself listened to, and procures for itself political authority, in England--a fact proved by the present Cabinet which contains nobles of moderate talent in its highest seats. But Mac Callum More would almost as certainly have become eminent had these advantages been wanting. For a century, no Duke of Argyll had reached great eminence in the state; but the present Duke early displayed qualities intellectually superior to those of his immediate family predecessors. And he by no means began political life as a radical; he began it above the bigotries of his caste as a sincere and generousminded statesman, indeed, like Gladstone; but, like Gladstone in this also, he gradually grew up to his present advanced position. He is now in his forty